Quote:
Originally Posted by brian.austin
The Epson 3800 is a $1500 printer. The idea that this is a "hobbyist" printer seems a bit extreme, especially given the lifecycle of most printers. You're not a "hobbyist" if you're selling "hundreds of pictures per year". At the least, you'd be classified as semi-pro.
You choose to spend your time printing. I tend to agree with John: let the print experts do the printing while I do the shooting. Not only do I get more FINISHED product capabilities (ie bigger product mix) but I get their years of printing experience so I don't have to mess with it. And I'll go a step further and say that I use some of their framing services as well. This is with a full blown woodworking shop of my own and all the pieces/parts necessary to DO my own framing. Time-wise, I'd rather be shooting or building furniture (which brings considerably more money).
Most pro studios tend to do the same thing John is doing: send it out for printing after their post processing.
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Yes I do sell hundreds of pictures from
digital-monochrome fine art black and white landscape print galleries and
Martin Henson is a Yorkshire based sports photographer specializing in cycle race images and supplier of top quality photographic prints.. I do not call the above mentionred printers "hobbyist, what I am saying is printers of this type will give and probably better those from labs UNDER YOUR OWN CONTROL, yes I do choose to spend part of my time printing and enjoy it, you say print experts at labs, if my output is not EXPERT then I might as well not sell, but it is and I have confidence in selling and sales to prove that, its all a matter of work flow and how you want to manage that flow, if I where having to print hundreds a day then home printing would not be practical, for me and photogs who specialize in a particular area of photography in a smaller way then printing your own is a completion of your work and complete control from start to finish, if i need any special type of print that's requested I can get it done anytime at a local lab. to say that printing without using labs is hobbyist is complete ignorance and put forward quite wrongly, one could argue that because you use labs then its because you cant print, but that would also be wrong to say, different work flow requires different approaches, its not hobbyist it requires skill and vision.
Martin